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Male Satin Bowerbirds attract mates by building a bower, a structure made of twigs and decorated with objects from around the forest. The bower is not a nest; its sole purpose is to allow a male to show off his building skills. A well constructed bower is so crucial to gaining mates that male bowerbirds sometimes resort to stealing building materials from neighboring males. Here, a female Satin Bowerbird stands in the center of the bower and watches a male displaying.

Only 1,868 refugees from war-ravished Syria and Iraq have been brought to Australia since the Liberal-National government promised, nearly a year ago, to settle 12,000 people. With 4.8 million Syrian refugees now living in camps across Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, this is a contemptible response. For all the government’s claims to be fighting in Iraq and Syria for humanitarian motives—to protect the people of the Middle East from the atrocities of ISIS—its reaction to the fate of those displaced by the war underscores its true attitude toward the millions of victims of the predatory US-led war in Iraq and Syria: here.

They document incidents such as guards threatening a boy with death and only allowing a young woman a longer shower in return for sexual favours.

Mental stress caused by prolonged detention was deemed to be the cause of self-harm cases, including a woman trying to hang herself and a girl sewing her lips together.

In 2014, one girl wrote in her school book: “I want DEATH” and “I need death.”

Former Save the Children caseworker Natasha Blucher denied that the charity was the source of the reports.

“However, now that this information is on the public record, it enables us to speak out in an unprecedented way,” she said.

Teacher Jane Willey, who recognised her own handwriting in some of the reports, said the published data was nowhere near the full extent of what had been written.

“What you are seeing here is just the tip of the iceberg,” Ms Willey, who worked for Save the Children on Nauru between July 2014 and March 2015.

“Seeing children refer to themselves as a boat number, seeing evidence of self-harm … I dread to think of how those kids are doing.”

Former detention centre workers condemn Australia’s brutal refugee regime. By Max Newman, 29 August 2016. In two public letters, more than 100 former staff members, managers, teachers and health professionals this month demanded the immediate closure of the Australian-run refugee “regional processing centres” on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island. The letters called for the incarcerated asylum seekers to be brought to Australia: here.

CORRECTION: 04/08/2016: This report states that Amnesty International and HRW were granted rare access to processing facilities in Nauru. In actual fact, while the groups were on the island, they were not granted access to processing facilities.

A new joint report by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International has found evidence of severe abuse towards hundreds of people seeking asylum in Australia.

The men, women, and children who were forcibly transferred to the remote Pacific island nation of Nauru to have their asylum claims processed, said they have suffered inhumane treatment and neglect.

Australia’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection criticised the two groups for not consulting the government while preparing the report and said it “strongly refutes many of the allegations.”

The department did not, however, respond to a request about exactly what it was refuting.

Australia refuses to accept any asylum-seekers who attempt to reach its shores by boat, preferring to pay Nauru and Papua New Guinea to hold them, often for years.

Reports of abuse, miserably hot and crowded living conditions and frequent suicide attempts at the detention camps have circulated for years.

Human rights groups have consistently called on Australia to abandon its offshore detention policy, calling the practice a violation of the country’s international human rights obligations.

A report published this week by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch further exposes the deliberate violation of the human, democratic and legal rights of about 1,200 men, women, and children who have been detained on the remote Pacific island of Nauru for more than three years after seeking asylum in Australia: here.

“We all sort of looked at each other in shock… there were signs of life in there but we didn’t know who was in there or what was happening, or how long they’d been there.” Lawyer

Deprived of hope.

“What’s going on with children in detention here is a deliberate, punitive, cruel policy.” Lawyer

On Monday night Four Corners reveals the shocking truth about the treatment of children behind bars, where young offenders have been stripped naked, assaulted and tear gassed.

“They had absolutely nowhere to run…Those children were afraid for their lives.” Children’s Advocate

Held by a system that seems bent on breaking children instead of reforming them.

“If I treated my children like that, the authorities would take my children from me quite properly because I would be behaving cruelly to them.” Lawyer

This confronting investigation will send shock waves around Australia.

Australia’s Shame, reported by Caro Meldrum-Hanna and presented by Sarah Ferguson, goes to air on Monday 25th July at 8.30pm. It is replayed on Tuesday 26th July at 10.00am and Wednesday 27th at 11pm. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 on Saturday at 8.00pm AEST, ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners.